Emilia - 18 Months

Time is flying! I have to say, I am so glad I don't have another baby right now. I am pleased with our decision to take a break! Life. Is. Busy!! Emilia is at such a fun age right now. I am loving seeing her grow into her own little person. She has words, can communicate better, plays differently, and is more and more adventurous. We can see her feisty spirit develop every day. 

It was tricksy to get her to sit still today (as you'll see in later photos).

David at 18 Months

Me at around 22 months (with Scott)

Me at my second birthday. She looks nothing like me haha!

Dominic at 18 Months

Weight: 24.4 lb. (70th percentile) - she conveniently went into our bathroom and stood on the scale all by herself the other day while I was getting ready. 

Height: 32 Inches (50th percentile)

Likes:

• Favorite meals: Peanut butter noodles, pesto tortellini, Annie noodles (aka... all the carbs! A woman after my own heart)
• Puzzles. She likes to play with the pieces anyway. She carries them around, puts them down, picks them up, and repeats. This activity is so nice and quiet, but it stresses me out because I'm afraid of losing pieces! She can do the bigger wooden Melissa & Doug puzzles though. We have some with animals, and one with numbers 1-20. She can do all of those pretty quickly. 
• Animals & babies. 
• Dancing. I should let her watch some ballet videos or something. I bet she would love to copy it. She goes on her tip toes and spins in little circles taking many steps. She already has better balance and coordination than me.

Dislikes:

• I can't think of anything other than being forced to do something she doesn't want to do, or not being able to do something she does want to do. That's not very remarkable for a toddler though. 

Notes:

• Size 18 Month & 18-24 month clothing. Size 4 diapers. Size 4 shoes
• 12 teeth (4 top + 2 molars; 4 bottom + 2 molars). Canines should be any time now!
• Words: snack (na), toes (tooooooooe), nose (no - in  nasally voice), all done (ah wo with sign), goodnight (niiiiigh!), bye (daii), bellybutton (na naaa), daddy, puppy (buppy), shoe (doo), book (bvoo), baby (beebee!), stinky (teekee), yummy (nummy nummy), Oma/Gramma (Mmmmma), no, no thank you (no tae tu), please (deees with sign), ball, bless you (ah tu), thank you (tae tu), up (puh), cheese, pee-u (plugging nose), Dom, milk/water (wuh), Hiiiii,  hello (allo), ya, poop (boop), bowl (bah), yellow, dinner (ninnee), blankey (meemee I think), pumpkin (na naaa), oatmeal (ya-yow), yogurt (ya-yow), airplane (ya-yow... figure that one out), boots (boops), Ashleigh (Ah-hee), Okay (oh yay), throw (dowww), Bo Bo Moma (Momoma)
• She has a lot of other words that aren't really words. She seems to know what she's talking about, but the rest of us have no idea.
• She loves playing with Dom. When they play well, they play really well. When they don't play well, it's usually because Dom is being bossy and she's being an 18 month old. 
• I feel bad that I don't get to notice her developments as much as I did Dom because there is so much going on around her that I can't focus as well. She doesn't get to do the same activities Dom did at this age (playing for long periods of time quietly with pom poms, playing in the pots and pans, doing puzzles, etc.) because Dom won't allow it. Her and I very rarely get one-on-one time. When we do, she's so wonderful. As I write this, Dom is behind me watching Paw Patrol and she is playing soooo nicely with the little Paw Patrol toys. If he wasn't distracted like that this would never happen. 
• Yesterday I sent Dom upstairs to help Dave with something and ran to get a puzzle to play with Emilia. She sat down, picked up a piece, and would go, "Oh yay (Okay)....... hmmmmmm....." and then place the piece. Who is this little person?!
• Her hair is getting so long! It is starting to get some curl at the bottom, too. It's still so fluffy and light. I always dreamt of a girl with tons of hair like me, but it looks like maybe she'll just have long thin hair haha. Regardless, it's impressive. David was the same at her age!
• She likes to comb my hair from time to time. It's a little uncomfortable, but I will nurture this so she'll play with my hair later on too!
• She's a lot friendlier than Dom. If she makes eye contact with another kid at the grocery store or the library, she's quick to smile and/or give a little "Hi!" She even smiled at an old lady at the grocery store yesterday when she said hi. 
• She's started playing pretend games, like tea parties and pretending to feed me things. 
• Dom often drags her (not literally usually) into his room and pretends to put her down for a nap. They'll play happily in his room for long periods of time. There aren't a lot of toys, so the fire house gets the most focus. Or if it's a day like today, all the clothes get pulled out of the dresser...
• She is so darn cute. Something about her petite little frame, her wispy hair, her huge blue eyes and her big pink lips. When she says, "Hi Mommy" my heart melts every single time. 
• She blows kisses when we say, "Say I love you!" at bed time. 
• She still gets a bottle every night at bed time. "They" recommend babies are weaned from the bottle entirely by 18 months, but I like my little snuggle every night. That is the only 2 minutes a day that I get with just her and I. 
• She savors things. I don't know if this is a trait that will carry through into child/adulthood, but it's something I do too. If they're having a snack, hers will last at least twice as long as Dom's. She's going to have to learn though; Dom keeps finishing his and then going and "sharing" Emilia's too. 
• If we ask her to say "Emilia" she says "Yaya". That's exactly what Dom at this age called her when she was a newborn <3. 
• She still won't sit and watch TV for more than 10 minutes. She needs to be stimulated in different ways apparently. 
• When I look at pictures and videos of Dom at this age I can totally see his personality, he has the same giggle, and he has a lot of the same looks. It makes me wonder how she will mature over the next year and a half!

The rest of the photo-shoot!

Dom insisted today on wearing his Canucks jersey to show Henry, and then climbed into our photo shoot. Sherlock then decided to join, but the depth of field wasn't wide enough so he's out of focus. 

There we go; let our puppy be the focus of the photo!

Had to kick everyone out to get some shots of just Wheelia

Real life. Trying to stop the attempted take-off

Ugh fine Mom, I'll chill here.

She thinks she's so funny

Check out that ruffly bum! <3

Her saying, "Uh oh" as the bear tips over onto her.

Her resting face is so soft. Big lips, big eyes, fluffy hair, squeezable cheeks. And then she has this teeny little chin. I had/have a broader jawline. More like Dom. She definitely got Dave's facial structure that way. 

Had to give her the pig in order to get the fingers out of her mouth and get her to sit semi-still!

This is totally one of my favorite outfits for her right now. She's wearing Dom's old onesie, Dom's old socks, Dom's old sweater, and then these adorable little jeggings. She also has little brown boots that make her look like such a little Vancouver girl in the Fall <3

So many teeth in that boy's mouth!!